b> Turnout of 98.87% and 99.52% of the votes on the winning list - this is what the 1981 "elections" looked like in the communist People's Republic of Poland. However, after the rise of Solidarity, Poles told this farce enough. And since there were no chances for free elections to the Sejm, the nation organized them for itself. So is the alternative parlamen
898 delegates (including 64 women and 36 Secret SB collaborators) to the National Congress of NSZZ "Solidarity" in Gdańsk in the fall of 1981 could confidently consider themselves a representation of the entire society. The democratically elected in 37 regions represented 10 million members of a trade union independent of the communist authorities.
Considering carefully that for two members of Solidarity there was one unaffiliated sympathizer - the Congress had the same legitimacy to represent all Poles as our current parliament (15 million people participated in the last elections).
The difference was that the "civic parliament" was organized spontaneously, against the authorities and without the back-up facilities necessary for such enormous events. It was a daunting task.
One of the convention posters. Today this little boy must be almost 40 years old…
An organizational masterpiece
The accommodation and food in Gdańsk, 900 delegates, 700 journalists from all over the world and hundreds of observers, was an incredible challenge in the Polish realities of the time. To avoid international embarrassment, the Ministry of Internal Trade and Services launched a special food pool for Solidarity which was allocated to the authorized in the canteens.
The atmosphere, however, was not at all joyful. Delegates located on the upper floors of the dormitories had the dubious pleasure of admiring the provocative maneuvers of the Soviet Baltic Fleet in the Gulf of Gdańsk - Big Brother did not allow us to forget whose sphere of influence Poland was in.
In Olivia's Gdańsk hall, trade unionists themselves organized a press center with telephones, telexes, printing equipment and a TV broadcast of the session with simultaneous translation. At the floor level - a thousand folding chairs, divided by regions. Outside the hall - displayed TV sets and loudspeakers for the large audience.
There were those who took holidays for the time of the congress and crashed with sunbeds in the parking lot under the hall and the nights in Gdańsk weren't warm anymore.
The 1st National Congress of Delegates of NSZZ "Solidarity" took place in the Gdańsk hall of Olivia (photo:Andrzej Friszke, Rewolucja Solidarności, Znak 2014).
As the regime television wanted to have the right to decide which statements would be broadcast (which in practice meant censorship) - the TVP team was denied the right to film the congress by a majority of votes.
Everyone has 5 minutes
After the experiences with regional conventions, it was agreed that all speeches were limited to 5 minutes, so that the maximum number of delegates could take the floor (it did not help much - the sessions lasted daily from 14 to 17 hours, and the convention in two rounds instead of the 10 days assumed was 18).
The effect of allowing such a large number of speakers to speak was electrifying. As Andrzej Friszke writes in the book "The Solidarity Revolution": The difficulty in conducting the discussion was that there was no continuity of argumentation and dispute, because every now and then a written speaker opened a new topic .
Jacek Kuroń and Jan Lityński. Already in 1981, they had considerable political experience, but this was not enough to control the participants of the Congress (photo:Andrzej Friszke, Rewolucja Solidarności, Znak 2014).
The specificity of the congress - the presence of a huge number of delegates who had no previous experience with great politics - made the parliamentary body at times completely unmanageable, even by experienced leaders.
For example, the most famous document of the Congress was adopted in a surprising way - the Message to the Nations of Central and Eastern Europe. Two delegates from Kalisz submitted their draft resolution out of complete surprise and immediately, during its first reading, there was a hurricane of applause in the room.
Jacek Kuroń, who was observing the deliberations in the lobby, immediately realized that the message in which the delegates sent their expressions of support for workers in other communist countries would lead Moscow to paroxysms of rage.
He ran madly into the hemicycle to stop the voting process, get the draft to work in committee first, let the delegates cool down, but everything turned out quickly.
Jerzy Buzek, the chairman of the meeting, tried to save the situation by offering the delegates a late lunch break in vain. The declaration, passed in a typically Polish, romantic outburst of heart, was as beautiful as it was extremely irresponsible challenge to the Soviet empire.
As Jacek Kuroń recalled - if the Kremlin had not yet decided to intervene, the "Message" increased the chances of taking it .
The Dark Side of Democracy
During the congress, a significant decision was also made to dissolve the Workers' Defense Committee, which from 1976 dealt with helping people repressed by the authorities for political reasons. Many initiators of the 1980 strikes and the Union's experts were associated with the left-wing KOR, but now the Committee's mission was completed due to the possibility of continuing the struggle within Solidarity.
The leader speaks. Jacek Kuroń in the photo of Andrzej Friszke (Revolution of Solidarity, Znak 2014).
A touching speech on this occasion was given by 91-year-old professor Edward Lipiński - the room gave him a standing ovation, the occasional hundred years were sung and a draft resolution of the Association was submitted expressing thanks to KOR.
Immediately, however, a counter-project appeared, prepared in fact to block a "thanksgiving" resolution. In the conference room, the tension reached its zenith, there were voices that it was a disgrace to Solidarity, and the fainting Jan Józef Lipski was taken to an ambulance.
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This very sad intrigue was observed with satisfaction only by the camouflaged security officers who, in their reports for their superiors, described the whole event as a desired by the authorities' split in Solidarity into "real Poles" and "Jews" (it is, of course - about the supporters of the KOR). The thanking for KOR was finally adopted, but it happened in circumstances that had poisoned the atmosphere among opposition activists for many years.
The meeting room of the Congress on the miniature photo from Sierpien1980.pl. See the entire gallery by clicking here.
The draft was voted on on the last day when everyone was already thinking about going home and the decisive argument was the opinion of one of the delegates from Wielkopolska - that since the Congress had previously passed support for the Union of Militia Officers, it would be somewhat inappropriate if they refused to thank for the 5-year activity of KOR ...
Cigarettes and the Polish case
However, the biggest uproar at the convention was caused by the increase in the price of cigarettes introduced in the meantime by the government. In contemporary Poland, in short, everyone smoked. In the backstage, there were voices about a general strike or at least a wave of strikes in individual regions, and the enraged Wałęsa (a fond smoker himself) threatened the finance minister
- There is no consent for a raise! If it is - we have a brawl. She's got it under control. But will you control us, I doubt very much! (ovation).
It was finally decided that Solidarity could not compromise itself by restricting the protest to the cigarette channel and a resolution was generally passed against the increase in prices, clearly indicating, however, that the protest of delegates resulted in: the introduction of an increase in the prices of freshwater fish and cigarettes. Further similar steps aimed at the standard of living of the society are promised.
Presidential election
The congress also elected the Chairman of the National Commission - the person who enjoyed the greatest democratic legitimacy to power in the whole country. The battle took place in three parts - first the candidates presented their program for 10 minutes, then they answered the randomly selected questions, and finally there was half an hour of mutual questions and answers (the equivalent of modern presidential debates).
"Reunion Guest". Such badges were used to enter the meeting room of the first truly free Polish parliament since 1939.
Despite the aggressive speech and very nervous dialogues with the rival candidates, the position of the Solidarity legend - Lech Wałęsa, who clearly defeated Andrzej Gwiazda, Marian Jurczyk and Jan Rulewski, was indisputable. 55% of the delegates voted for Wałęsa - so he can be credited with the support of around 5.5 million voters.
He maintained his popularity until the first free presidential elections in the Third Republic - where he was directly supported (in the first round) by 6.5 million voters. This, however, was not supposed to happen until 9 years later. Two months after the Congress, the most beautiful and mass social movement in the history of the world crushed the tanks of General Wojciech Jaruzelski.
Source:
The article is based on the book by Andrzej Friszke entitled The Solidarity Revolution. 1980-1981 (Horizon Mark 2014).